E-Paper
Congress leader moves Kerala high court over Aarogya Setu app
The central government had launched Aarogya Setu on April 2 as a digital contact-tracing tool and to disseminate information regarding Covid-19.
The central government’s May 1 directive to make the mobile application Aarogya Setu mandatory for all persons working in government and private companies was challenged by a Congress leader in the Kerala high court on Thursday for violating right to privacy and autonomy.
The Aarogya Setu collects personal information of an individual without his or her consent and such coercive and forcible extraction of personal information is unheard of in a democratic and republic setup and is the attribute of a dictatorial system, the plea by the general secretary of the Thrissur district Congress Committee, John Daniel alleged.
“The petitioner is aggrieved by the order issued by Government of India, which makes the use of the mobile application, Arogya Setu, mandatory for all. The petitioner is aggrieved by the dilution of the concepts of personal autonomy and informed consent effected by virtue of this mandatory imposition”, the plea filed through advocates Sriram Parakkat, KR Sripathi and Anupama Subramanian stated.
The central government had launched Aarogya Setu on April 2 as a digital contact-tracing tool and to disseminate information regarding Covid-19. Contact-tracing is the practice of finding potential new infections that an infected person may have caused by coming close to other people.
Arogya Setu uses a smartphone’s GPS and Bluetooth features to track contact and location trails.
The petitioner’s case was built on the argument that the app is a tracking mobile application which continuously collects data of an individual once it is installed on the mobile phone.
The petitioner argued that Aarogya Setu collects the personal information of a registered user including name, phone number, age, sex, profession, countries visited in the last 30 days and whether a person is a smoker or non smoker and his or her medical condition.
The May 1 order of the central government also directed state governments to proceed under section 188 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against anyone who violates lockdown measures including the failure to install the app.
Section 188 of the IPC states that any person who disobeys an order given by a public servant can be punished with imprisonment up to 6 months.
The plea specifically assailed clause 15 of Annexure 1 of the May 1 order as per which the use of the app was made mandatory for all employees. Clause 15 also states that it shall be the responsibility of the head of the respective organisations to ensure that all employees use the Aarogya Setu app.
“Clause 15 mandating the use of the application, Arogya Setu takes away the right of a person to decide and control the use of information pertaining to him. He is forced to give away data to a system which he may or may not approve of, thereby attacking his right of informational autonomy”, the petition said.
Autonomy of an individual is central to the right to life as per the 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court in KS Puttaswamy, the petitioner submitted.
